Flickr again

So, a three-part Megabus trip I just took would have gotten a glowing review from me, but a confusing situation on the last bus made us get in well over an hour late, and posting a whole new piece or even choosing a photo is too much right now, so here's a photo I really like that I put on Flickr:

Taken last Sunday, near a school demolition site. That photo was at the top of my Flickr page when it hit this on 11/9/11:

1.5 million overall views. Again, thank you to all who've appreciated my work on Flickr, even the several commenters who've frankly been annoying me recently in various ways and I should really say something. And the people I haven't heard enough from recently. I could tell, checking on the Detroit hostel computer last night, I'd almost certainly miss seeing it EXACTLY at 1.5. But hey...the 201,234 I see above is kind of neat.

notes from the road

I honestly can't recall if I've ever done what I've imagined for years, posting a blog post while traveling (from those travels long enough for me to stay at a hostel with computers or with friends or family, which isn't the majority of my trips!). To get one in for NaBloPoMo, I'm making a quick visit online at the new-ish hostel in Detroit. It's my third stay here in 2011, one night each time, and every time I've been almost the only one using this computer (since everyone else is either too preoccupied while traveling to do anything online, or has a laptop). I can't do some of the functions I could on my home computer, so no images, but it's better than trying to blog from my phone or just doing another blog-from-Flickr.

It's been a decent visit (on-time Megabus arrival, mild weather, Tim Hortons, familiar and unfamiliar photo opportunities, no major hassles, a fun game even if it involved the Red Wings winning) but I have to get up early for another Megabus...

question of the day

Seen while walking a Chicago industrial zone Sunday morning with friends (which produced many enjoyably bleak photos I haven't had time to look through yet):

No answer was provided.

(I had a discussion with someone about if this blog recently, i.e. during NaBloPoMo, is sounding too sad. I can't help it that the start of the month corresponded with an excessively stressful week, but I CAN try to watch what I say. But I also don't want to make any promises about what I'll be posting; signing in here every day is a huge deal for me, in itself.)

on a sad Sunday

This is a day where I wanted to go on an evening cooking jag, or reading jag, or uploading today's photos and actually writing about the day that just passed jag, but I'm too tired and sad. I was sad at not hearing from people so I shut my phone off completely at 4:30 pm and don't feel like turning it back on yet (though I need the alarm on it to wake up in a timely fashion, theoretically). And though I tried not to be, I'm sad thinking about a year ago today when I spent time with one friend and first met another through him, and not knowing if they remember this, and not being in touch enough, well, certainly not with one of them, to talk about all the strange turns life has taken (from getting to know both of them, and from everything else in life) in that year. The picture above is a previously unposted one from a nice photo excursion that day (Pilsen, I think, hence the tag). I'm also sad to write a piece that's passive (or passive-aggressive?) communication, but it's better than no communication.

briefly noted

200,000! Thank you to all my viewers and supporters! I'm sure I'm not the only Flickr user who likes seeing nice round numbers. I average about 50,000 photostream views per year (it's slowed down, which seemed wrong, since I keep getting more PEOPLE [or sometimes bots] viewing, but then it really sunk in that I post 2-5 photos a day average, when I used to do 8-12...and you would not believe the backlog I have) so I knew I'd be hitting this in the fall. Got up a few hours after waking up today and to my delight it was at 199,999. Of course that means it inexplicably takes forever for ONE person to bump it over to 200,000, but it happened, and I got screenshots.

When I neared 100,000 views, I was on a trip to a Boston-area friend, needing to leave soon to get my bus back to Chicago, and I was so anxious to see the round 100,000 I had to sign myself out of Flickr, view my account to get the right number of views, and sign back in to see 100,000 on the screen, so I could save the image. (Probably via an actual photo of the screen, since I still don't know how to do screenshots on non-Macs.)

And: the number of photos it shows is extremely different from the number I actually have posted. Disregard. And also: getting very close to 1,500,000 of ALL types of views on my account all-time, but I'm not counting on being at the computer when that happens.

thrift store, Davenport, IA

It has been a strange and somewhat terrible week, but I'm very excited about signing into Blogger for four straight days now for NaBloPoMo and it's only going to get better (except for a few days when I don't have time for more than a random photo like this) from here; I'm full of ideas. Including the one that'll explain just why this blog semi-vanished the past few years... Photo taken on my birthday, 2011.

Humboldt Park/Garfield Park, cloudy night

Two night photos, from a walk home from Kedzie & Chicago, which I'd never walked around at night, as far as I know, after getting items at the Dunkin Donuts there 15 minutes before closing, after a Chicago Ave. bus ride from an artsy event downtown that was cool but went badly, just like an event did last night. (Material for a post I'm working on.) At least this time, I got views I rarely see.

statistics

I am too tired on day 2 of NaBloPoMo (from things that happened today, not from the blogging itself; I have plenty of ideas now) to post anything except this amazing fact: November 2, 2011 was the first time I looked at ANY statistical information for this blog--pageviews, links, etc. THE FIRST TIME. And I've been on Blogger since early 2005. (With some very long breaks, but still.) I've checked my Flickr statistics probably at least 5 days a week since I first could access them, but my attempts to figure out where stats were here never worked.

And then, after I posted last night, I sampled the new Blogger look--an introduction since I'd last signed in in spring--and BOOM, there it was, whether I wanted to see it or not. Already I want to find how to hide it. I'm more interested in search terms, which are consistently entertaining in my Flickr stats (today's successful searches included "i love boilers" and "want my house to be filled with books"), than I am in numbers. And, well, my numbers seem very low compared to Flickr views. But it's good to know the information's there. (Also: this post is my first written using the new design in the "new post" section, but I'm too tired to do more than a basic text post.)

Nov. 1. NaBloPoMo

Happy Halloween...or a bit after Halloween. This photo is from two days earlier, of a pumpkin given to my parents in Iowa, which was already falling apart (the top fell in the next day) and a bit moldy. I did virtually nothing to celebrate the holiday, since I was away from Chicago over the weekend (and away from parties I didn't know about/wasn't invited to). All I saw were a few costumes at the Iowa State Cyclones hockey game, and then on Halloween back in Chicago while taking the CTA. It's always a lost holiday for me--I have material (vintage clothes, uniforms--including some found in abandoned buildings!) for literally hundreds of costumes, but nowhere to wear it. At least I like pumpkins and I like candy. Day after Halloween, I almost forgot to look for candy except at my local Family Dollar, which didn't have much (Walgreens is a better bet). I bought a bag of candy corn for 50 cents and ate too much of it already. The store had Halloween decor still hanging from the ceiling all over...and plenty of Christmas decorations already up. Little trees on top of the refrigerated cases on both sides of the entrance. (They start stocking winter holiday merchandise the first day of fall every year.)

This is my first time actually signing into Blogger in months, since its redesign (which I haven't explored much yet). It appears I still can't combine my old Blogger account with my Gmail account and it appears posting photos still isn't any easier. But I wanted to try NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, established in 2006 as an alternative to National Novel Writing Month (which I kind of hoped to try last year, but I know my limitations!): it's now hosted at BlogHer. I need to officially list myself and promote myself and figure out how I'll handle posts on a few days I'm out of town in November, but I'll try to have something up every day.

where I've been

closing Borders, Ames, IA
Originally uploaded by katherine of chicago

Many places since--I don't even know the last time I posted. Trips in the spring, then lots going on Chicago and major tasks I had to do in the summer (I don't travel "all the time" like so many people think--I didn't travel for two months!), then a bunch of trips in August including this one to my hometown.

I've been documenting as many closing Borders bookstores as possible, just like I did earlier in the year when the first round of store closings happened. This Ames store is one of the saddest for me. So much I could say about my relationship to this chain but I'm working on the best way to say and show it--I warn you, I might post a LOT here when I'm able. The last stores close this Sunday, Sept. 18.